PRL Motorsports Front Pipe - Fitment Rattle - Installation error?

[ferdinand]

Trying to see where the front pipe is in relation to the piece it was in contact with.

It should be behind the flex pipe which is just behind where pic ends in his first pic...

I wonder it this is going to make the difference in the grinding from the frontpipe to the axle

It should - the braces, are pulling the front pipe towards the front of the car - relieving the tension of the incorrect attachment to the brace should slightly lower and push back the front pipe...if you look on the vid, the exhaust bushing looks to be binding like it is being twisted up and to the front...Good Luck!

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[dc2turbo]

It should be behind the flex pipe which is just behind where pic ends in his first pic...


It should - the braces, are pulling the front pipe towards the front of the car - relieving the tension of the incorrect attachment to the brace should slightly lower and push back the front pipe...if you look on the vid, the exhaust bushing looks to be binding like it is being twisted up and to the front...Good Luck!

Those brackets are on the downpipe. There's no way the downpipe can move even if you bolt it on the wrong side. The downpipe is held by 4 bolts and there's a lip on the turbo that goes inside the flange. The downpipe has no flex section, So it's not flexing anywhere . IF anything it's just flexing the bracket and stressing the block.

But then I guess if the flange on to downpipe to turbo has a lot of plays in the bolt holes. it could angle the downpipe slightly

 

[ferdinand]

Those brackets are on the downpipe. There's no way the downpipe can move even if you bolt it on the wrong side. The downpipe is held by 4 bolts and there's a lip on the turbo that goes inside the flange. The downpipe has no flex section, So it's not flexing anywhere . IF anything it's just flexing the bracket and stressing the block.

But then I guess if the flange on to downpipe to turbo has a lot of plays in the bolt holes. it could angle the downpipe slightly

Slightly is all that is needed, and there is slight movement when you move the brace to the correct position (just like you can "push" down to loosen bolts, lol).

 

[NeoDragons]

Yea here it is
Picture 1 is how mine is installed
Picture 2 how it’s supposed to be

Shop is closed already so I’ll go back on my next day off

yeah the first pic is how i installed it the first time. would rattle when i started the car, lol

 

[ecarranza11]

yeah the first pic is how i installed it the first time. would rattle when i started the car, lol

Did the rattle go away when you installed it correctly?

 

[NeoDragons]

Did the rattle go away when you installed it correctly?

YUP.

 

[PRL Motorsports]

Are there any motor mount upgrades that you'd recommend that don't cause cabin vibration?

Sadly, no. Can't have your cake and eat it too.

I have my stock front pipe installed along with my stock exhaust. I only installed the PRL Front pipe to maximize the car's horsepower potential, nothing else. When changing back to my stock front pipe (and exhaust), my car ran no slower at the dragstrip. I still have the PRL downpipe. No more rattling issues and stock quiet ride but good power.


Also, what I'd like to see is a 'properly' fitted downpipe. PRL mentions that it should be nowhere near the intermediate drive axle. I am very interested in seeing what a front pipe looks like that is nowhere near the intermediate drive axle.

Anyone here with the PRL front pipe care to share a picture with the community, that are not having any issues with rattling/pipe contact with the intermediate pipe? Can you take a picture and show us what this looks like? Thanks!

At this time our shop car is sitting outside in the snow . Once this snow blows over we will bring it in and snag a few pictures. In the meantime, we have some pics from a previous conversation from another customer with the same/similar rattle issues in July.

Here is how the customer's shop installed his dp / fp combo:

The bracket was installed incorrectly on the wrong side of the flange like ecarranza11's. Because the one downpipe bracket was installed on the incorrect side it made re-installing the other bracket extremely difficult to near impossible. This customer returned the front pipe back to us, where we once again fitted in our jig. We found no issues with this piece so we test fitted it onto our shop car to triple check. Everything fit perfectly as designed. The only difference was the fact that we installed the bracket onto the correct side. Here are pictures from our test-fitting of the same "problematic" piece:

Here is a picture of when we were originally designing the front pipe:

With all of this being said, it is always possible that there is a problematic piece out there. However, the odds of it at this point are highly unlikely on any piece manufactured outside of our first batch 6 months or so ago. Out of the very few inquiries that we have received of rattling issues, all were due to installation error somewhere. Keep in mind that something small like a misaligned bracket at the top can cause a large misalignment at the bottom.

 

[ferdinand]

Myx, do you think the rattle and damage could have come from the install being done incorrectly? I am also curious why you were using the stock piping when you had the Injen being installed at the same time? Looking at the damage and the fact they couldn't get the front pipe to mate to the rest of the exhaust makes me think install error. It will be interesting to see if ecarranza11 gets his issues fixed when the shop fixes the install error. Any thoughts on reinstalling the front pipe minus the Injen?

 

[Myx]

Myx, do you think the rattle and damage could have come from the install being done incorrectly? I am also curious why you were using the stock piping when you had the Injen being installed at the same time? Looking at the damage and the fact they couldn't get the front pipe to mate to the rest of the exhaust makes me think install error. It will be interesting to see if ecarranza11 gets his issues fixed when the shop fixes the install error. Any thoughts on reinstalling the front pipe minus the Injen?

At this point, I can't say whether it was an install error or not. What I can say is that to prevent this from possibly happening to future customers, installation instructions should be included. I thought it was a simple unbolt and bolt on affair that any shop could do but apparently it's not that simple since seasoned mechanics are making these mistakes. Good luck! At least this is a possible solution to help any CivicX owners that read this thread from possibly having issues.


I also want to thank ECARRANZA11 and PRL for uploading the pictures. These have been very helpful.

 

[NeoDragons]

Is anyone running the PRL front pipe on a CVT without these issues?

i know its been a month for this reply but was bored and decided to take off the FP and see if there was any contact like the previous post, so far nope, pipe is free of marring or rubbing marks from the drive shaft. got a little rubbing near the exhaust connection, but thats probelly from me trying to wrestle it outta thje car, lol

 

[ecarranza11]

So I just re installed the frontpipe and no more grinding. The shop had installed it wrong the first time.

 

[ferdinand]

So I just re installed the frontpipe and no more grinding. The shop had installed it wrong the first time.

Good News - enjoy the grindless exhaust!

 

[Fiiggy_3]

So I just re installed the frontpipe and no more grinding. The shop had installed it wrong the first time.

Was this because of the bracket being bolted wrong?

 

[ecarranza11]

Was this because of the bracket being bolted wrong?

Yes that was my problem
That’s why I was getting the rattle Noise

 

[Fiiggy_3]

Yes that was my problem
That’s why I was getting the rattle Noise

Awesome I’m gonna take a look at it soon as the rain passes through

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